Product description

Here are some of the most loved poems in the English language, chosen not merely for their popularity, but for their literary quality as well. Dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, these splendid poems remain evergreen in their capacity to engage our minds and refresh our spirits.

Customer reviews

It is nice book with historical great poems. I think that I was expecting a bit more out of it. I miss feeling and passion. I enjoyed the theopoetic ones.

Back cover copy

Here are some of the most loved poems in the English language, chosen not merely for their popularity, but for their literary quality as well. Dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, these splendid poems remain evergreen in their capacity to engage our minds and refresh our spirits. Among them are: Marlowe: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Shakespeare: Sonnet XVIII ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?")Donne: Holy Sonnet X ("Death, be not proud")Marvell: To His Coy MistressWordsworth: "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"Shelley: Ode to the West WindLongfellow: The Children's HourPoe: The RavenTennyson: The Charge of the Light BrigadeWhitman: O Captain! My Captain!Dickinson: "This Is My Letter to the World"Yeats: When You Are OldFrost: The Road Not TakenMillay: First Fig
Works by many other poets--Milton, Blake, Burns, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Emerson, the Brownings, Hardy, Housman, Kipling, Pound, and Auden among them--are included in this treasury, a perfect companion for quiet moments of reflection.

Table of contents

BALLADS Lord Randal Sir Patrick SpensSIR THOMAS WYATT The Lover Showeth How He Is Forsaken of Such as He Sometime EnjoyedCHRISTOPHER MARLOWE The Passionate Shepherd to His LoveWILLIAM SHAKESPEARE "Sonnet XVIII ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?")" "Sonnet LXXIII ("That time of year thou mayst in me behold")" "Sonnet XCIV ("They that have power to hurt and will do none")" "Sonnet CXVI ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds")"THOMAS NASHE "Adieu, Farewell Earth's Bliss"JOHN DONNE The Good Morrow "Holy Sonnet X ("Death be not proud, though some have called thee")" "Holy Sonnet XIV ("Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for, you")"BEN JONSON To Celia On My First SonROBERT HERRICK "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" Upon Julia's ClothesGEORGE HERBERT Love Bade Me WelcomeEDMUND WALLER "Song ("Go, lovely Rose -")"JOHN MILTON On His Blindness On His Deceased WifeSIR JOHN SUCKLING "Why So Pale and Wan, Fond Lover?"RICHARD LOVELACE "To Lucasta, Going to the Wars"ANDREW MARVELL To His Coy MistressHANRY VAUGHAN The RetreatTHOMAS GRAY Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes"WILLIAM BLAKE The Lamb The Sick Rose The Tyger LondonROBERT BURNS To a Mouse "A Red, Red Rose"WILLIAM WORDSWORTH "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sep. 3, 1802" "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" "The World Is Too Much with Us; Late and Soon"SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Kubla KhanLEIGH HUNT Abou Ben Adhem Jenny Kiss'd Me"GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON" "She Walks in Beauty" The Destruction of Sennacherib "So We'll Go No More a Roving"PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Ozymandias Ode to the West Wind To a SkylarkWILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT ThanatopsisJOHN KEATS On First Looking into Chapman's Homer Ode to a Nightingale Ode on a Grecian Urn La Belle Dame sans Merci "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be"RALPH WALDO EMERSON Hymn: sung at the Completion of the Concord MonumentELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING "Sonnet XLIII ("How do I love thee? Let me count the ways")"HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW The Village Blacksmith The Children's HourJOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER Barbara FrietchieEDGAR ALLAN POE To Helen The Raven Annabel Lee"OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, SR." Old Ironsides The Chambered Nautilus"ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON" The Charge of the Light Brigade Crossing the BarROBERT BROWNING My Last DuchessWALT WHITMAN I Hear America Singing O Captain! My Captain! A Noiseless Patient SpiderMATTHEW ARNOLD Dover BeachGEORGE MEREDITH Lucifer in StarlightEMILY DICKINSON "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" "This Is My Letter to the World" "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" "Because I Could No Stop for Death"CHRISTINA ROSSETTI A BirthdayLEWIS CARROLL JabberwockyTHOMAS HARDY The Darkling ThrushGERARD MANLEY HOPKINS The Windhover Pied BeautyROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON RequiemA. E. HOUSMAN To an Athlete Dying YoungRUDYARD KIPLING Gunga Din Recessional If -WILLIAM BUTLER YEARTS The Lake Isle of Innisfree When You Are Old The Second ComingEDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Richard Cory Miniver CheevyROBERT FROST The Road Not Taken Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningCARL SANDBURG Chicago FogWALLACE STEVENS The Emperor of Ice-CreamWILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS The Red WheelbarrowEZRA POUND The River-Merchant's Wife: A LetterMARIANNE MOORE PoetryEDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY First FigWILFRED OWEN Anthem for Doomed youthE. E. CUMMINGS "anyone lived in a pretty how town"W. H. AUDEN Musée des Beaux ArtsDYLAN THOMAS Do Not Go Gentle into That Good NightAlphabetical List of TitlesAlphabetical List of First Lines